A Season to be Me!

Gail Sheehy is such a trip! She wrote the definitive book for the masses (that's us) who wondered where we were in our lives. The book, PASSAGES, is still on my bookshelf, but I understand that since Gail has actually entered some the later passages she wrote about that she has discovered "later life" is much different in the actual living than in the intellectual musing.

Yep, as an aging boomer herself, Gail has decided we boomers are carving out new passages as we outlive the actuary chart, and according to her, since we are living longer, we are taking longer to grow up. Hey, makes sense to me. Why grow up sooner than necessary?

Sheehy opines that we are knocking off 10 years, which makes 30 the new 20; 40 the new 30; 50 the new 40; and 60 the new 50. Not only that, but us older gals and guys now have our own cute label: seasoned women and marinated men. I can't tell you much more because I haven't gotten the new book (well, of course there's a book!) but I understand that the longer life-line has given us a second chance at being adults. That's right, people between 50 and 70 are entering their second adulthood. (There's more: The third adulthood, which I guess is parallel to the 3rd and final act on this play called Life, is up there ahead in time for when we are embracing our 80s and 90s and yes, our 100s, starring on the back of our own Smuckers jars for the Today show.)

I took one of those online quizzes to estimate my chances of living to 100, and I only got to 86. I know I can get a higher score, but I've got to lose some weight and start exercising before I re-test because that's where I lost points. My friend Maya scored 99, but she is slim and plays tennis, so I know I gotta do my homework. After all, I don't want to end up being bland--I wanna keep the spice in my life. Yeeee-haw.